History of Go Sponsorship in Britain

We apologise in advance to any sponsors who have been omitted from this history.

In its earliest days the BGA had much support from Japan Airlines (JAL)
who helped produce a Go introductory leaflet that helped promote Go in the UK
for many years. In 1974 they sponsored the British Championship title match and in 1978/9 several international telephone and telex matches.

Hoskyns, now part of Cap Gemini, sponsored a telephone match against the USA at their London premises on 4th July 1978. We lost 1:2.

Various regional tournaments have had their own sponsors,
sometimes leading to a one off event prompted by the sponsors' support. One of
these was the Bank of China tournament in 1996. ICL Office Systems
sponsored the British Go Congress in Reading in 1987. Swindon's first event was
sponsored by National Power and the British Go Congress in Chester in
1998 was sponsored by British Aerospace. There has been a handicap
tournament sponsored by Black Bull, makers of Perry, and which was
latter sponsored by RTP (Rex, Thompson & Partners).

The Scottish Open in Dundee was sponsored for several years by Real Time
Worlds. In 2011 they were replaced by Denki, another local
computer company. The Epsom Tournament was sponsored several times by Forbidden
Technologies. At Oxford they are sponsored by their local games shop Hoyles
who also run book stand at the tournament.

Youth events have been sponsored by Equity and Law and by LG.
The Pair Go Championship had received support from the Japan Pair Go
Association.

A long term relationship exists with Hitachi, both in
Cambridge and in Maidenhead. At Maidenhead they have sponsored the event at
their headquarters since 1994. They were our major sponsor at the European Go
Congress in Canterbury in 1992 and sponsored the London Open for six years.

When the British team went to the 2008 World Mind Sports Games in Beijing,
they were sponsored by Winton Capital Management. The
relationship with Winton continued for two years afterwards, with three years
sponsorship of the London Open, support of the 2009 UK Go Challenge, and
support of other BGA activities.

Asahi Shimbun sponsored a tournament alongside the Meijin match in
London in 1989 and continued to support British Go for a few years with three
years' support of the London Open and part sponsorship of the 1992 European Go
Congress.

Since the AlphaGo match in 2016, we have been receiving support from DeepMind. In 2017 this
is specifically aimed at promoting youth Go.

The London Open had always been a top European event and therefore part of the
various European Cup Grand Prix systems that have run over the years. Hence it
has received support from the sponsors of those: Fujitsu, Toyota
and Pandanet.

Direct sponsors of the London Open have been:

1984

Games Workshop

1988

Hoskyns Group (now Cap Gemini)

1990-92

Asahi Shimbun

1993

Ing Foundation

1993-98

Hitachi

2008-10

Winton Capital Management

2016-

DeepMind

In summary a few British companies in the high-tech industries have supported Go from time
to time, although the majority of sponsors have been Oriental companies. In addition we are of course very thankful for all support we have received, not
only from sponsors, but also all the companies, universities, schools, churches
and hotels who have allowed Go events to take place on their premises at no or
reduced charge, and all those who have supported events with prizes, assistance
or other support. These are too numerous to name here.